It had nearly been a month since Lucius had pulled that horrific stunt on Narcissa. She seemed to be struck with luck this year, given the fact that it had been an ideal final year so far.

The night that Lucius had left her on the staircase, he never returned. That wicked man. She had been up all night, biting her nails to the core and trying to think of something, anything, to do. Her thoughts kept melting into each other, changing from vindictive, to helpless, to angry.

Eventually by morning, whatever enchantment Lucius had cast had finally began to wear off. As soon as the distance had become pragmatic, Narcissa had jumped and ran as far away from the staircase as possible, her wits traumatized. Still clueless about the password for the Common Room, she’d proceeded into the Great Hall, awaiting the golden moment of breakfast.

It took nearly an hour until people began filling the Great Hall.

“Cissy!” came a high-pitched voice from across the hall. Hurried footsteps grew louder and louder, moving in her direction. Narcissa was far too dazed and fatigued to notice Nixie and Vesper approaching her.

“Oh dear,” Vesper muttered, covering her mouth.

Without saying a word, they all made their way to the Common Room and up to the girl’s dormitory, which was thankfully empty. Narcissa splashed her face with cold, gratifying water, her eyes widening a bit at the sudden chill. She spent a few minutes scrubbing harshly at the mascara that had stained her skin from all the crying she’d done last night. She turned to face Nixie and Vesper, who were staring at her pitifully.

“Please you two, don’t treat me as if I’m a patient,” Narcissa snapped.

Her friends didn’t take her sudden outburst to heart. Instead they asked, “What on earth happened last night? Why didn’t you ever come back to the Common Room?”

At that, Narcissa did actually burst into tears. Luckily for her, it was in front of the two people she trusted most in the world, who rushed over and embraced her.

“Th-that wretched M-Malfoy!” she cried, and between sobs, went on to tell her friends about the dreadful night. They went on to gasp after almost every sentence, and she responded with a teary “I know” before continuing on.

“I’m not amused, I’m just…” she trailed off. “It takes a deep understanding of magic to perform a spell like that. And you said he didn’t use his wand?”

“No,” Narcissa sniffled. “He was just muttering an incantation.”

“He’s definitely practiced in the Dark Arts.”

“Well obviously, he’s a Malfoy!” Narcissa snapped again, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.

“You’re not just going to let him get away with it are you?” Nixie asked, biting her lip, waiting for Narcissa’s reaction.

“Of course not!” Narcissa exclaimed, blowing her nose. “But I’m not going to do anything drastic right away either. Honestly, I’m going to lay low and think about it. I want him to suffer as badly as I did. And besides, he’s going to have his guard up and ready, and I want to get him back when he least expects it.”

She threw her crumbled tissue on the ground and strutted out, Nixie and Vesper scurrying behind her.

To make her day even worse, Narcissa just happened to have Lucius in every class. She first noticed him in Transfiguration. When he turned and snickered at her disheveled hair and baggy eyes, it took all of Narcissa’s strength to keep her from cursing him. Next, she came across him in Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Ancient Runes, and finally, Potions.

And here she found herself, a month later, sitting skittishly in Ancient Runes, with a cauldron full of fortune. Or so she sinuated. Seeing Lucius everyday made her boil with rage stronger than the day before, reminding her of that terrible night. She’d spent many more countless nights lying awake with Nixie and Vesper, trying to think of the perfect plan that would humiliate Lucius Malfoy.

Just as the Ancient Runes professor, Gregory Graphold, turned his back to the class, Narcissa pulled out the scribbled piece of paper she’d been working on.

Target: Lucius Malfoy a.k.a. Blonde Beast

Purpose: REVENGE

What he values most: pride, blood status, quidditch

Target value: ALL

She’d been staring at this piece of paper for weeks now, stressing more than necessary. At first, she had been indecisive about how to get her revenge on him. Rather than choosing one aspect to offend, she had finally decided to structure out her plan so she could insult every bit of him that she could.

Vesper sat in front of her, doodling on the empty space beside her notes. Nixie sat to her left, conspicuously chewing a packet of droobles. She was dying to tell them about her plan, and she didn’t want to wait till class was over.

She kicked Vesper, who yelped loudly, and abruptly covered her mouth, mortified to have made such a noise. Narcissa bit her lip to keep from laughing, but the damage was done.

“Erm…well…I just realized…my bladder…,” she quickly trailed off, biting her lip as soon as the words escaped her mouth.

“Do you need to use the girl’s lavatory?” the teacher finished for her.

She nodded without looking up at him.

“Would you like me to escort you?” came a taunting voice. Vesper turned to see none other than Lucius Malfoy’s cronie, Dmitri Amador, flashing a cocky grin in her direction. Mortified, she faced the front, flushed by the comment. The classroom filled with laughter.

Vesper stood up too eagerly and left the classroom, but not before giving Narcissa the I’ll-deal-with-you-later look. Narcissa swelled up with guilt. She looked over at Nixie, only to find her silently laughing hysterically.

Vesper returned quickly, her face maintained and her expression unreadable. As Vesper quietly closed the door, Narcissa turned to the back and accidently caught Lucius’s icy stare. Though his eyes sent chills down her back, she continued glaring at him until he turned away. Wretched beast, she thought.

“Feel better, Ms. Hale?” Dmitri whispered as Vesper passed by.

Once again, her cheeks turned a deep red as she made her way over to her seat. She turned and glared deeply at Narcissa before returning to her notes.

“Vesper, I’m so sorry!” Narcissa whispered apologetically into her ear, hiding her smile. “I didn’t mean to kick you that hard. I was just trying to get your attention.”

“Well you’re not the only one who got my attention, isn’t that right?” Vesper muttered angrily, keeping her voice down to a mere grumble.

“I was just trying to show you this,” Narcissa explained, handing over her jotted plan.

Vesper examined it for a few moments, her eyes widening when catching the “ALL!” part. She waited till the time was right, then passed it over to Nixie, who was smiling eagerly. She snatched it and scanned over it, giggling excitedly.

Professor Graphold, who was at the moment writing on the board, paused and added, “Once again, the term Ehwaz is not to be confused with the term Eihwaz. Who can tell me the meaning of Ehwaz? Anyone? Yes, Ms. Fosner?”

Professor Graphold turned back to the board when a high pitched voice suddenly interrupted.

“Excuse me, Professor.” It was the one and only vile Cilia Hormitch, the Head Girl of Slytherin who had reported Narcissa on the Hogwarts Express. She flipped her short blonde hair out of her face before saying, “I couldn’t help but notice that Narcissa and her friends are passing notes in class.”

Narcissa’s jaw tightened. Cilia definitely had something up her arse, and she couldn’t seem to get it out. Narcissa had tried time and time again to understand why Cilia hated her so much. There was this one time in their third year that a boy Cilia was dating tried to kiss Narcissa, who she ended up slapping across the face when he tried. But she couldn’t be mad at Narcissa over that, could she? It’s not like Narcissa had went along with him. He was a complete idiot anyhow.

Nixie was tongue-tied, Narcissa was trying to contain her rage, and Vesper, well Vesper actually looked like she had it all together.

Vesper started, “Nixie was simply lending me her notebook so I could copy down the notes I’d missed.”

“Thank you, Ms. Hale,” Professor Graphold said, buying her story. Luckily for the girls, being part Veela meant you were also very convincing. “Ms. Hormitch, I’d appreciate it if you would pay attention to my class rather than my students. You may be Head Girl, but leave your patronizing for while you’re on Prefect duty.”

“In short,” said Nixie, turning to face Cilia, “that means get your head out of your fat arse.”

As soon as they were dismissed, the three girls stood up and left the classroom in a hurry, glaring at Cilia as they did so. Narcissa also allowed her glare to extend to Lucius as she passed him by.

“Well that was an interesting class,” Vesper laughed as they took a walk around the school grounds before Potions. The soft breeze of October had finally reached Hogwarts. The girls made their way through an endless fiery ocean of leaves, oblivious to the crackling sound of autumn that lay beneath their feet.

“Yeah, about that,” Nixie said guiltily, biting her lips. “Sorry for losing those five points you earned.”

“Oh it’s alright,” Vesper motioned with the wave of her hand. “Besides, it was so worth seeing the look on Hormitch’s face.”

“You know if I didn’t know any better, I’d say that Dmitri was sort of flirting with you,” Nixie said, her face enlightened.

“Exactly what I was thinking,” Narcissa said, her lips slipping into a grin.

“Dmitri? No, he was just being an utter jerk,” Vesper exclaimed skeptically.

“There’s not really a costume for that, Nixie,” Vesper tried to explain for the hundredth time that she couldn’t conjure up fireballs or transform into a harpy-like creature when she was angry. “Maybe I’ll be a mermaid.”

“Oh I like that idea,” Nixie nodded with wide eyes. “Drew and I were thinking of going as vampires. You know, Mr. and Mrs. Dracula. I know it sounds cliché but we’re going to look scary.”

“It could work,” Vesper pitched in. Narcissa’s mouth fell open. She hadn’t expected Vesper to agree. Upon seeing her expression, Vesper added, “Well your hair would go with it perfectly. And we would do your make up so you would look really pretty.”

“Oh come on it will be really funny, and no one will expect it,” Nixie begged. “Just give me a chance to make your dress.”

After staring at Nixie’s desperate expression for a few moments longer, Narcissa groaned, “Fiiiiine. But I swear if I don’t like it I’m not wearing it.”

Nixie clapped in excitement as Narcissa rolled her eyes. She didn’t know why she was agreeing to this.

It was official. Narcissa Black was going to be a skunk for Halloween.

*******

A/N: So guys I really couldn't think of a costume for Narcissa so I decided to just make her a skunk. I can't wait to write the Halloween chapter. It's going to be such a random addition. Leave me a reviewwwwwww pretty please <333 Oh and if you have any costume ideas for Narcissa, I'd love to switch it around a bit if one of your ideas really strikes me!